Address delivered at the second annual meeting of the Anthropological Society of London / by James Hunt.

  • Hunt, James, 1833-1869.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered at the second annual meeting of the Anthropological Society of London / by James Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    gave it as my opinion that “ it is utterly impossible for the science of man to make any progress, [in the British Association] while it takes only a second and subordinate place in Section E,” I, nevertheless was anxious not to increase the number of sections, and therefore gave notice of a motion to incorporate anthropology into that section. I did this under the impression that by uniting with others interested in a branch of our science, we might be better able to protest against the undue power which has hitherto been assumed by the geographers. The Council of our Society ordered their delegate to support the resolution, as I was prevented from attending. I hardly know whether it is a cause for regret or the reverse that this motion was not carried. When I proposed it, I was fully convinced that it could only be a temporary arrangement; and that the science of man must eventually obtain a separate section. It was with little surprise that we learned that this resolution was not carried by the General Committee, and in anticipation of such a result, we gave instructions to the official delegate of the -Society to give notice of a motion—“ That a separate section shall be formed, entitled Section H, to be devoted especially to anthropology.” Before- I make any remarks on this point, I must, in justice to Mr. Blake, say that he carried out his orders most faithfully. Amongst other instructions given to that gentleman was the following: —“ Should, however, the Committee of the Association decline to recognise anthropology, either in Section E or in some other suitable manner, you will return the papers to the Society’s apartments.” In the remarks made by Mr. Blake to the General Committee, these in- structions were mentioned, and were by many construed into a threat on the part either of the official delegate or of the Society. I am sure it was never intended as such either by Mr. Blake or by the Committee of the Society from whom he received these instructions. I need not remind any one who is at all acquainted with the working of Section E, of the manner in which papers bearing on the science of man have been treated since 1851. But to those unacquainted with this subject I will give a few facts which will make it clearer. I wish also to show that the dissatisfac- tion respecting the position of the science of man at the Asso- ciation is of no recent date. At the formation of the British Association in 1831, no arrangement was made for ethnology, for the best of reasons, on which I shall have presently a few words to say. In 1844, a sub-section for ethnology was appointed, in connec- tion with Section D (zoology and botany). But this sub-section was not considered suitable by the ethnologists of that day, for we find that in the same year, when the Association met at York, a proposal